Do you trust the nutritional info listed on a menu?

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mmstone13
mmstone13 Posts: 60 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi- Just wondering if you all trust what a menu says for calorie count, etc. or if you make adjustments. For example, I just had the garlic sirloin meal at Applebees, which they claim the meal plus sides clocks in at 460 calories. But when I look at that plate of food, I think, REALLY, all this for 460 calories?

So, do you trust it or not?

Replies

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Yes I've wondered the same thing about that one! But it's actually not impossible, I've made several meals with the same stuff for about the same amount of calories.

    Bottom line though, it's all approximations anyway, so I just log that.
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
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    +/- 20% for all nutrional information is the standard variation. It's all you really have to go with, so might as well trust it.
  • willdob3
    willdob3 Posts: 640 Member
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    Knowing the ingredients is more important to me than getting the calories exactly correct.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
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    I don't even count breadsticks
  • wolfgate
    wolfgate Posts: 321 Member
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    Just be glad you live someplace that has nutritional info on the menu. It's hard down here to figure out what to order...
  • itsjustdawn
    itsjustdawn Posts: 1,073 Member
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    Not really...
  • TinaBean007
    TinaBean007 Posts: 273 Member
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    I have a good friend that I go to lunch with fairly often who is an insulin-dependent diabetic. I've watched her learn the hard way that the menus can be grossly incorrect. (She uses the carb listing to moderate her insulin injection after the meal.) She can tell how far off it is by her sugar level response after the meal. I can tell you that she won't eat at Panera anymore.
  • LAW_714
    LAW_714 Posts: 258
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    There's plenty of room for margin of error.

    On the other hand, it's better to have some frame of reference than none at all, so having calorie counts and serving sizes is helpful (if not 100% accurate).
  • kelciebananas
    kelciebananas Posts: 17
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    I don't trust generalized nutritional information. It's often inaccurate.

    http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/special-reports/special-food-labels/nXsJZ/

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